Design Archives

Infinite Variety: Exploring the Folger Shakespeare Library cover

Description

Infinite Variety is both an exploration and a celebration of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Published to coincide with the library’s 70th anniversary, the book documents its history, physical environment, collection highlights and current activities. Rather than develop a descriptive cover showing the library or a mélange of book highlights, we feature a detail from a map in the library’s collection. It serves as a metaphor for something that shows where you’ve been, where you are and where you can go. The map’s rhumb lines suggest a variety of possible directions, and the latitude markers fortuitously end at 70. Finally, the title in a label shape evokes the memory of specimens and collections.